As a Reserves Officer for the Wildlife Trust I manage nature reserves every day. So when I moved into my house 5 years ago and the back garden was an 11 metre by 4 metre plot of bare ground it was only logical that I turned it into my very own mini nature reserve. I added a pond, some small trees and a native wildflower mix and before long nature was flocking to the garden. The log pile next to the pond is a great hiding place for frogs and the bee post is a great home for mason bees. The recent addition of a hedgehog house is still up for rent but with signs of hedgehogs around there is definitely hope for a resident in the winter.

Now the garden is well established it takes little work to keep it looking good with the wildflowers and grasses just being cut at the end of the summer in my attempted replication of a hay cut! I even have my very own grazing livestock although my pet rabbit does struggle to eat his way through the whole of the garden!

Recently I decided to do a species list for my garden and found that there were over 100 different plant species and at least 66 animal species. Without gardens and nature reserves many of these species would struggle to survive. I wonder how many species you have in your garden? I bet you will be surprised!